Practical Deer Hunting: Advice for Your Abbot

Last Updated on July 16, 2020

Practical Deer Hunting: When we speak of deer and hunting many times, we assume that we all have a preserve where we can spend as many hours as we want to knock down that special trophy that we have located. However, the reality is very different, and most of those who hunt roe deer in Spain do so sporadically and without many occasions to devote to the same area or animal as many days as we want.

Practical Deer Hunting

The deer hunting is not easy since it takes place in the early hours and always inside the forest or on its borders. These demands make the roe deer, despite its small size, one of the trophies most desired by any hunter. The roe deer is a very peculiar animal, solitary, stealthy and silent, popularly known as the elf of the forest, its movements are almost like a magic effect.

In addition, its small size and the color of its hair make it perfectly camouflaged in the environment, arriving on many occasions to be the one who surprises us. His hunting is one of the most exciting and demanding, both for the hunter and for all his team, and to shoot him is not easy, which makes it much more valuable. You can shoot down in different hunting modes, each of which has its secrets and will require different skills.

Weapons

The weapons that we will use in these modalities, both for reprimand and for waiting, will be practically the same. I have a good friend who says that to hunt the roe deer serves any weapon and any caliber, but the truth is that it is a little naive …

The weapons that we will select for the roe hunting will have to be, first, very precise, since the target we shoot is not very big and we can not practically repeat the shot; and second, they will have to be light, since we will have to carry them for a long time and we all know that after a long road each kilo weighs much more than we can imagine.

Faced with these needs, the best weapons for hunting deer will be bolt action rifles and monotiro rifles, both equipped with a high-quality telescopic visor with which we will improve our aim.

Weapons light, that throws well and that, in addition, they are silent to operate, so much at the time of loading as, for example, to put and to remove the insurance, and positions to request, if they can have an adjustable trigger or with the option of French hair or double trigger, the success will be more than assured.

Munitions

We have to know that in some countries the laws of hunting determine the caliber, weight of the projectile or the minimum energy to be able to hunt the roe deer.

For example, in Germany, the rifle cartridge acceptable for roe deer must have an energy greater than 1,000 Joules at 100 meters from the muzzle, while in Scotland for roe deer indicate that the projectile can not weigh less than 50 grains and it has to develop an energy superior to 1,360 Joules in the mouth.

In France, the minimum caliber is 5.6 mm, and it has to develop 1000 Joules at 100 meters if it is hunted in stalking or waiting, and 1,500 Joules at 100 meters if it is whipped.

In England and Wales, they speak only of the minimum caliber, the .240, while in Northern Ireland the minimum caliber to hunt is .236 with a projectile weight from 100 grains and an energy in the mouth of 2304 Joules.

In the world of ballistics, there are no secret formulas or magical projectiles, to kill an animal you have to be clear that the best cartridge is to place the bullet in place.

With the first lesson already learned, now we have to analyze our goal, the roe deer, in order to find a cartridge proportional to its size and vitality. This animal is an artiodactyl mammal, the smallest of the deer of Eurasia, its weight can reach 30 kilos, and the height at the withers is, at most, 75 cm.

Given this size, nothing big by the way, and the vitality similar to that of a goat, it is advisable to use cartridges with projectiles between 6 and 7 mm, which have an energy between 1,500 and 3,000 Joules at 100 meters, cartridges with the that charging the piece will be easy.

In the market, we find a good range of ideal cartridges with these characteristics and that will perfectly fulfill our mission, such as the .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, 25-06, 6.35 × 57, 6.5 × 65 and 7 × 57, among others.

All of them are suitable to hunt the roe in an ethical and efficient way, what the English call No dramas and clean kills, that is, a clean death without suffering.

Some cartridges, big game, such as the 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum or even the popular 30-06, when hunting the roe deer we can say that they are excessive, they have a lot of energy that will end up destroying our piece.

In case there is no other remedy, and we have to use one of these cartridges, to collect our trophy we will try, at least, to use soft-tip projectiles as light as possible.

Practical Deer Hunting

Optic

Due to the low light conditions in which this hunting takes place, at dawn or dusk, they make optics the most demanding section of all the treaties. In the adverse conditions of light is where we will find, really, the difference between a good optical and a normal one.

The first thing we will demand from a viewer is that it be luminous; for this, we have to know that the viewfinders transmit the light they receive through the lenses to the eye, always, as is logical, losing more or less in the process.

If the light that is transmitted is above 92%, it is considered a good viewer. Having a large objective of 50 or 56 mm is not significant for luminosity; The secret lies in the quality of the lenses and this quality when speaking of optics, is sadly reflected in the price.

The second thing that interests us is the magnifications and the diameter of the objective: the minimum for this type of hunting would be to be able to have a telescopic viewer of 3-9 × 50 or 3-12 × 50 being able to get to use, without the slightest problem, much more powerful viewers, such as 4.5-30 × 56 (in these it is important to also take into account the weight factor).

We will always bet on a variable magnification viewer, as we can perfectly adjust the magnification to our needs and conditions, the more we use increases we will see our much bigger and closer roe, but we will lose sight of the field, and it will be more difficult to fix it in a way fast inside the viewer. When we use a viewfinder with many magnifications, any movement will be magnified, to avoid it we will need to have the firm support of the weapon.

Position of Shooting

It is very important in hunting deer position when shooting; We need to be stable and, for this, the best, without any doubt, is to have good support, firm for our rifle. Think that the firmer our support, the farther we can shoot the roe accurately. The support in a cane or rod can serve to improve our aim, but for shots of no more than 150 meters.

Maximum stability will be achieved by using a front bipod, an effective bipod Harris fixed to our rifle, and if, in addition, we place the backpack as support in the back, we will reach almost to perfection.

In this way, whenever the place and the vegetation allow it, we can shoot in a very stable and relaxed way, securing the piece many meters away, and it is that in these forms of stalking and waiting it may be that sometimes we have to Shoot 300 meters or more.

As you can see, it’s not easy to pull fast here, let alone pull free-standing, but in case we have no other choice because the roe of our dreams has appeared in front of us and we can not let it go.

The most effective rapid shooting posture is to put one knee on the ground and support the elbow on the other, thus giving good support to the rifle. Although, the truth, before these situations if we can not ensure 100% the piece, it is best not to throw it away and leave it for another day.

Anatomy

It is worth knowing the anatomy of the deer to determine the location of their vital organs and thus define a lethal point where the bullet can be placed, with this we will achieve two important advantages: on the one hand, avoid the suffering of the animal and, on the other hand , able to charge the piece quickly.

This section should be the one that most worries the hunters when it comes to go for the roe deer, everyone worries about which is the best caliber when the important thing is to place the bullet in the site.

We have to keep in mind that the roe deer, due to its size, appears as a small target, and its position in front of our cannon will be crucial, so we will have to wait for it to show its maximum silhouette to make the shot.

The ideal place to shoot is the knuckle if we hit our bullet will reach the heart (which, incidentally, is placed in a very low position) or affect the large vessels that surround it, which will cause immediate death.

If when shooting the knuckle goes a little over this point we will impact on the lungs; in this case, we will cause a pneumothorax, which is the roe deer, unlike other animals, is lethal and can travel very little distance before falling dead.

If with our shot we advance we will break the base of the neck, which will also be lethal, while if the impact delays us, it can impact the liver or its digestive system, which occupies a large space in ruminants; this last shot will end up killing you, but not at the moment, with what the animal will suffer, and we can even have difficulties for the collection of the piece.

Practical Deer Hunting

Extras to Guarantee Success in

The world of optics and roe hunting we find other interesting devices that will help us a lot when it comes to locating and getting the trophy of our dreams. The rangefinder, the distance meter, is an instrument that will be of great help to us, rather than to locate the hunt to know exactly how far it is.

In the field distances are very tricky, the orography, the light conditions, the size of the piece or, simply, because the points of reference that we have are not the usual ones, are some of the reasons why, despite our great experience, we can make a mistake when calculating the distance.

For those who want more when hunting deer, technology provides another truly revolutionary device, thermal vision (image on these lines), yes, at a price prohibitive for most mortals. High-performance monoculars that act as thermal imaging cameras detecting the infrared energy radiated by the bodies that give off heat.

They work in the same way both day and night, their quality and effectiveness are incredible, with them we can track the fields and boundaries of day to discover the goblin very quickly and effectively, even when browsing, hidden behind the shrubbery.

 

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